Idiot

meant originally a private person, one not engaged in any
public office. Hence Jeremy Taylor says, “Humility is a duty in great
ones, as well as in idiots” (private persons). The Greeks have the
expressions, “a priest or an idiot” (layman), “a poet or an idiot”
(prose-writer). As idiots were not employed in public offices, the
term became synonymous with incompetency to fulfil the duties thereof.
(Greek, idiotes.) (See Baron.)